The Very Best Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

With only a few days left of Grateful November, I need to pack in some big ones before the end of the month!

So today, I’m thankful for my parents. Because they are such amazing people, and the older I get, the more I see that. That they aren’t just good parents, they’re good people, through and through.

They’ve always been so encouraging of everything I’ve ever set out to do, even blogging. Taking the time to learn about it, about the different aspects that are important to me like page views, re-pins, and followers. It’s been really impressive. And a little intimidating… I have no idea how to be that kind of a parent.

My husband’s a natural. But me? I spend the day counting the hours down until bed time. Despicable, I know.

I have no idea how my parents have had the patience to parent 6 kids. I’m not even sure Emma and I are going to survive potty training!

Possibly my Mom won us all over early with her homemade hot chocolate. It was difficult to do anything but acquiesce when you had a mouthful of smooth and creamy hot chocolate.

It’s amazing. And life changing.

And I’ve honestly judged every other hot chocolate I’ve ever tried as being completely sub-par in comparison.

I highly recommend serving this with a huge dollop of whipped cream. The chocolate syrup is more optional– I just added that here for presentation’s sake. Although, chocolate syrup makes everything better :)

This makes a fairly large batch. I haven’t measured out how many servings, but it’s enough to last a family for a few weeks. And that’s if you’re drinking it a lot.

This is a really awesome neighbor Christmas gift!!

Suggested Variations:

Use a flavored powdered creamer, like hazelnut!

Try using strawberry Nesquik Mix for Strawberry Hot Chocolate.

Substitute half of the powdered sugar for Truvia or other no calorie sweetener for less sugar

Ashton Swank

Ashton is the owner and author of Something Swanky. Although first and foremost a wife and mother, she considers herself an online entrepreneur, freelance writer and photographer, and brand ambassador. Her focus is in food styling, food photography and recipe development.

I saw this on Pinterest and thought, it can’t be better than my mom’s hot chocolate recipe…and it IS my mom’s hot chocolate recipe! How funny! It truly is the best. Mom’s recipe was from a church cookbook from the late 70s/early 80s and the powdered creamer of choice at that time was “Pream”. My mom passed away 7 years ago and I haven’t had it in a long time. Thanks for sharing and for this wonderful reminder of my mama. Think I’ll make some for my little ladies!

Don’t feel bad about the whole countdown thing. My oldest {at home} is 19 and the youngest is 10. I STILL do the countdown! This hot chocolate mix is so different than any I’ve ever seen. Can’t wait to try it! I have a feeling I’m really going to like it.

Maybe if I had some of this homemade hot chocolate every day I wouldn’t do the countdown to bed every.single.night! Love that this makes such a big batch…we go through way too much of the packaged stuff!

Hahahahaha I count the hours until my family goes to sleep too! Lol, they’re like my children in a weird way and trust me, I definitely enjoy my alone time when they’re all at work or in bed. It’s wooooonderful, lol. And this hot chocolate looks fab! Usually I bypass hot cocoa because it looks so blah to me.. but this looks creamy and chocolatey and wonderful.

Your comment on the older you get the more you appreciate your parents talents struck a chord with me. I am 71 and when my children and grandchildren were growing up I liked to quote something Samuel Clemmens (Mark Twain author) once said: “When I was a boy of 16 I used to think my father was the dumbest, most ignorant man on the face of the earth. By the time I was 21 I was amazed at how intelligent he had become”. All of my kids and grandchildren have told me since they got the “message”.! I will make up this hot chocolate mix for Christmas. Have a safe and healthy holiday season.

Hi—–I made the recipe this AM. It is very good indeed. I bought all the ingredients at Sam’s so had to use my trusty kitchen scales to give me the right quantities. For anyone who likes to use measuring cups, I transposed the recipe to:

I figured your ozs., and they came to 89. If that is correct, and one calculates 1/2 cup of mix is 4 ozs., you should yield 22 servings.

I still have a love affair with my old standby cocoa recipe from the cocoa can, but this is so very nice for a made up batch, and for gift giving. Thanks so much. PLEASE, if anyone has an issue with my calculations, bring them on. Math was never my strong suit !

Hi… I just made a batch of this (truly delicious!) and wanted to mention that the calculations listed in this comment are actually incorrect. (Although thank you so much for trying to convert them!) I didn’t figure all of them out, but I did measure my 25 oz of powdered milk and it came to almost 11 cups (not 7 1/2 cups!). I should have measured the rest to see what it came out to, but just wanted to hopefully catch anyone before they tried the above measurements. You can even note on the side of the 25 oz milk box that it states there are 32 servings and each serving is 1/3 cup… so that would be just shy of 11 cups in the box.
But yes… this is so yummy and is going out as Christmas gifts to teachers and friends. :) Thanks for the recipe!

I was wondering if I was reading this right. Use 1/2 of the coco mix per one cup of water? I want to make this and pass out to a few neighbors and want to make sure I tell them right! This looks and sounds very tasty!!

Your recipe looks so good! I will definitely make this. No kiddos of my own but one can never be too old for hot chocolate, and I imagine my friends and their families will be happy to help me consume this deliciousness if I gave them a can or jar of it. :)

I tried a different recipe for homemade hot chocolate last night that was way too bitter for me–it tasted like dark chocolate, and I like milk chocolate. Before I “waste” more ingredients, I wanted to ask–does this mix taste like dark chocolate or milk chocolate? Thanks!

Funny about there being no cocoa in this recipe–I thought I’d look for a homemade version of Nesquick to see if I could save money on that part, and the recipe calls for 2/3 c. sugar, 1/3 c. cocoa, and a pinch of salt. But I’m not sure if it tastes like the real thing (although commenters said it did) because I have actually never had Nesquick! So I am wondering if I should just bite the bullet and buy the Nesquick or make my own homemade version–but it sounds like a lot of cocoa! Hmmm, dilemmas…if you or anyone else has tried the homemade Nesquick and can vouch for its authenticity, let me know so I can proceed!

I haven’t ever tried homemade Nesquik as I grew up a complete Nesquik junkie! But, just by looking at the recipe…. It doesn’t look like it would taste like nesquik…. but that’s just from eyeballing it.

So, I just made up a glass of the “homemade Nesquick” and I was pleasantly surprised. I don’t know if it tastes like the real thing, but it wasn’t as bitter as I suspected. I just put 1 T sugar, 1/s T. cocoa and a tiny pinch of salt in a cup, added a few T hot tap water, mixed it up, and filled the cup with milk (and mixed it up). It was actually pretty tasty, and not terribly bitter, so I’m thinking this ratio mixed with powdered milk, powdered sugar, and powdered creamer would reallly work. I’m going to try it and I’ll let you know if you are interested–might be cheaper than buying the Nesquick! Thanks for the recipe!

So…. here’s my question. Math wizard I’m not. I want to make this hot chocolate & serve premixed w/ the water from a large coffee server for a reception. How much water would I add to mix the entire batch correctly?

I have a big cupcake holder I usually use! But I just recently discovered that those big popcorn tubs (the ones that have like 3 different kinds of popcorn) are the perfect size!! My mom has a huge bowl that she uses, but… I don’t have one that big! lol

Thanks for the recipe – I had been searching for my mom’s recipe and misplaced it somewhere, and -BINGO! – here it is! I just wanted to say: all powdered milk is not created the same! Some dissolves great in hot water, some not so great. Carnation and Publix brand are the best we have found. Also, we always fill our cup 1/2 way with the mix, pour boiling water to the top, then mix. After mixing, the volume will recede, and we fill the rest of the way with whole milk or cream. That way, it is cool enough for little ones to drink right away, and I confess I still make mine this way as well! Just found your blog, and LOVE it!! :)

Ok so I am very confused. This sounds like a really good idea but I tried it and it doesn’t taste good at all! I am sure it was me but I don’t know what I could have possibly done wrong. I feel like maybe I got a bad batch of Nesquick or something because normal chocolate milk with it hardly tastes like anything but sugar, hardly any chocolate taste at all. My boyfriend agrees too, and I haven’t had Nesquick in years so there is no way of knowing. :(

I found this post from a Google search containing “Best Homemade Cocoa mix”..I want to give it to our family back home in Seattle as easy peasy Christmas gifts! I made it, made myself a cup and it is SO delicious! I had to buy 2 things of Nesquick because they only had 21oz boxes and 10oz boxes so I got one of each…. turns out the 10oz box was a “traditional latin flavor” so there’s a hint of cinnamon in the cocoa, but IT. IS. TASTY!!! This is gonna be a holiday staple for us. Thank you so much for sharing it!

Hot chocolate is so fun. It is the start of warm & fuzzy memories that we carry with us throughout our lives. No matter how bad or good a cup of hot chocolate is it still brings back a comforting feeling. That being said… I’ll be the bad guy here, but I was disappointed with this, at first. A comment by a friend had me rethinking my initial impression. This is a very good, if not the best “cheap” chocolate mix I have tried. Please, nobody get offended. I do not mean “cheap” in a bad way, but more of a distinction between types of chocolate. You cannot compare a Hershey’s to a fine Belgian or Swiss chocolate… its unfair! So, if you are looking for something like akin to the All-American favorite then look no further. If you are looking to indulge a more refined craving, then this may not be the best for you.
btw… I gave my lot to a gal pal for her kid & they enjoyed. Looks like I’m in the minority, but thought I would offer a different POV than everyone else. And yes, I know… what did I expect using the ingredients listed. I should have been more realistic, but then how fun is THAT?!

Has anyone tried to sub the powdered milk and creamer for anything else to make it lactose free? powdered almond product or anything? I want to make these as gifts in a jar for Christmas but I have a couple of friends who are lactose intolerant. Thanks for the help!

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Author, photographer, and dessert enthusiast. Making the world better one chocolate chip cookie at a time.